Cover Artist: Betti Oliver

Title: Abundance

Medium: Acrylic

Contact: boliver02@hotmail.com

I always had a passion for art and I would say it started when I was a young girl in primary school doing pencil sketches, usually of trees, flowers, and my pet dog. At the time I thought they were fantastic but the truth was my sketches were not that good. They were quite distorted and out of perspective but as a kid your art always looked awesome to you. I soldiered on attempting to get better with each creation which has lead me to still producing images today.

Debasish Mridha has said, “Abundance is not the absence of scarcity; it is the presence of abundant mentality.”

When people follow common guidelines for creating abundance (visualisation, affirmations, mind training audio tapes) they are not always very successful. Why is this? And is there really a way to achieve abundance?

Our beliefs can limit our success

Information about creating abundance is often focused on material things, like jobs, houses, cars, and travel. Many of us have been instilled since childhood with limiting ideas about being wealthy, or having nice things or a good life. For example, from hearing my parents often express anxiety about a lack of money, I believed for a long time that we were very poor, that there was never enough of anything to go around, and that for me to have something I wanted or needed would deprive someone else. So for many years any thoughts about having were associated for me with guilt.

Other children have been taught that the only way to have material things is through hard work; some have come to believe (perhaps through the way they were treated) that they are not lovable or worthwhile and so don’t deserve nice things. These early-formed beliefs take root in our subconscious mind and silently influencing our ability to create abundance.

The limitless universe

The universe is limitless; there is no shortage of anything. In fact, nothing at all exists until it is first created as an idea, and absolutely anything that can be imagined can then be delivered by the universe. Every one of us is a divine creator and everything that is in your life or in my life now has been created by us.

Our thoughts and words create emotions, and emotions are energy. Energy attracts similar energy. We energetically instruct the universe what to create on our behalf: when we feel poor, or worry about not having enough, and even when we focus strongly on wanting something we don’t have, we create a specific vibrations, or energy. Imagine that you express to a friend, with a great deal of emotion, “I never seem to have enough money for everything I need.” Your anxiety creates a vibration of lack, which is reflected back to you by the universe as further experiences of not having enough money.

Some of our experiences might have been pre-determined as a soul contract before we came into this life for the purpose of our growth during this incarnation. But much of what we create reflects unconscious beliefs that we hold about ourselves and about life. Practising abundance includes learning to become conscious creators, so that unconscious, limiting beliefs are no longer automatically manifested.

Changing your vibration

An important step in becoming a conscious creator is to uncover the beliefs that contribute to what you are currently creating. For a few days, keep a record of anything negative you think and say related to money or wealth (e.g. “I can’t afford...”). Then, spend some quiet time recalling any childhood events or experiences that might have influenced you to have ideas of being poor, of never having what you need. Perhaps you heard a parent express this concern, or were told you couldn’t have something you wanted because it cost too much. As a result, what did you decide about money or wealth or having nice things?

Such beliefs are not necessarily true and can be changed. For each limiting belief that you discover, create a positive affirmation that expresses the idea that you would like to hold instead. For example, to replace a belief that you never have enough money, you might choose something like: “I relax and allow the universe to provide me with whatever I need and want,” or “I always have more than enough money to fulfil all my needs and wants.” Write your affirmation(s) somewhere you will see them regularly, read them to yourself often, out loud when possible, and remind yourself of the new belief any time you find yourself thinking negatively about money.

Most importantly, to reduce the creative power of limiting beliefs, train yourself to never say or even think about anything that you wouldn’t want to create.

Practising abundance

Abundance can certainly mean having ample money to meet our physical needs, but this is a limited and limiting interpretation. Abundance is much, much more: it can also refer to having supportive friends, love, good health, music, beautiful surroundings, whatever brings us joy. By widening our definition of abundance beyond just material things, we immediately begin to have a greater feeling of abundance and, as we change our energy in this way, we begin to attract even more abundance.

Express gratitude every day, for as many things as you can find, big or little. Gratitude creates energy of abundance and expressing gratitude also helps you to move on from being focused on limitations. Anthony Robbins wrote, “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”

Practise thinking about abundance in its broadest form; once we really experience this, we exude an energy of plenty. As Eileen Caddy has written, “Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level.”

Give generously when the opportunity arises. Since abundance isn’t limited to material things, this can be of your time, physical assistance, a shared meal or whatever meets someone’s need and feels right for you to give. Physician and author Debasish Mridha wrote, “A generous heart filled with gratitude is a magnet for abundance.”

Through meditation or other means of achieving presence, tap into your inner knowing (that aspect of us that is in tune with all that is) for ideas and direction for generating increasing abundance.

Practise abundance using all of these approaches, and watch your life change!

Annabel Muis is a Reiki practitioner and Reiki teacher, living in Kuranda. She can be contacted on 07 4093 8937, or by email at annabel.muis@gmail.com